This teaching case describes the issues and dilemmas facing a natural beef cooperative at a turbulent moment in their industry. With a severe economic downturn, increasing cattle handling demands from their main customer and their management group in transition, Country Natural Beef is faced with decisions that will significantly impact its viability. This case is… [Read More]

Developed by Dr. Robert P. King, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota (rking@umn.edu) This paper describes the use of a series of case studies on values-based food supply chains in a course on cooperatives taught at the University of Minnesota. Though not written for this purpose, these case studies are excellent tools for helping… [Read More]

Developed by Dr. Cheryl Brown, Agricultural and Resource Economics, West Virginia University (cheryl.brown@mail.wvu.edu) These curriculum materials are based on case studies of Organic Valley, Country Natural Beef, Shepherd’s Grain and Red Tomato developed by the Agriculture of the Middle initiative. These case studies offer models of how mid-sized farms and ranches can prosper through producing… [Read More]

Current funding support provided by United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Multistate project, NC-1198, “Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle: Value Chain Design, Policy Approaches, and Environmental and Social Impacts” (2012 -2017).